In the three years since Kapaki Dairies opened, it’s pumped out nearly a million litres of milk and 10,000 customer invoices. But with daily, fresh milk deliveries, comes daily invoices and then the nightmare of manually processing them all.
The Waikato company supplies glass-bottled milk and refillable ‘milk taps’ to cafes, restaurants and supermarkets. Co-founder John Heskett says before Upstock, sending out thousands of invoices was draining.
“Before Upstock it really wasn't good. I was staying in the office until very late at night. When I got to the end of the month, I just dreaded it. I just knew I was gonna be there till midnight processing invoices.”
But now with Upstock’s automated invoicing doing all the work, John could process orders in his sleep.
“With the app, it's so easy the drivers don't realise that when they’re out on the road delivering our milk and they click the ‘ship’ button, they’re actually generating an invoice and sending it straight to the customer.”
John says gone are the daily delivery mix-ups and miscommunications with busy baristas.
“It gives proof of delivery to every single drop-off. Our drivers take a photo of the milk bottles, and it shows the customer that we've dropped off the milk. We now have a full timeline from when the order was first placed, right until the orders are completed. So if a customer ever calls up about an order, I can just go into that order number, there's a timeline of when everything was done and a photo of the delivery. You can get to the bottom of things straight away, it's awesome.”
Cutting out the paperwork has also cut staffing costs. John says he no longer needs an accounts person back in the office.
“Upstock’s not one of the bills you're worrying about at the end of the month. It's so affordable and it’s one of the most reasonably priced things that we have in our business. Now we send out invoices and have order management software all in this one app for only a dollar an invoice.”
“It's just so great to have something that's doing so much for our business and not costing an arm and a leg.”
More from our chat with Kaipaki Dairies, John Heskett:
What have been some of the unexpected benefits of using Upstock?
We do daily deliveries, six days a week. Our customers don't want six invoices coming into their inboxes. So Upstock’s given us the ability to consolidate all the invoices into one. It shows them the six orders once a week and then it's happy days for the customers. It’s super simple, and it's great stuff.
How is Upstock helping with your growth plans?
We've needed an app to be able to work in with our growth, and it doesn't matter now if we're processing a million litres or one litre, Upstock's going to be able to handle the volume, and it means that it's just one less thing to worry about as we keep growing. We started operating our factory a year ago today thinking it was gonna last us for the next 10 years and we've already outgrown it. We've had to extend it. The business is just growing at such a rapid pace that we can't keep up with the growth. It's been awesome having that growth and obviously having Upstock integrated into our system to grow with us. So yeah, we’re looking forward to the next five years.
What's your experience been supplying to Foodstuffs supermarkets?
I would consider myself tech savvy. But after logging into the Foodstuffs Exchange, I just didn't know where to start. So I started calling other suppliers around the country for advice and they just said 'Get Upstock, it solves the problem'. The Foodstuffs Exchange is pretty complicated, and can take up a lot of time. So I actually can't remember the last time I logged into it. You just do everything through Upstock and it's happy days.
What do you love about your job?
Getting to remove two-litre plastic milk bottles throughout different operations – cafes, hotels, and schools. Kaipaki has a milk-on-tap system that sits beside cafe coffee machines and uses 10 and 20-litre reusable pails. There are thousands of two-litre milk bottles being used throughout companies in New Zealand and we get to give those businesses a chance to play their part in helping to save the planet. It’s also far more efficient than opening and disposing of 2-litre milk bottles when your cafe’s busy. We’ve got some really well-known customers who are taking that mission on board. The likes of Sky City, Accor Hotel Group, a range of cafes in Hamilton and Wellington, and Auckland and Waikato Universities. It’s really rewarding work.
See all the benefits of Upstock for milk, cheese & dairy producers
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